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Industry Update – Rogers/Citytv 2012 Upfronts

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This is my first time at the Rogers Media/Citytv 2012 upfronts. This year, they are held at Toronto’s Massey Hall. Historically, the Rogers upfronts don’t provide much in the way of Canadian scripted fare, or Canadian content. In fact, Murdoch Mysteries‘ Citytv run ends this summer. If viewers miss the fifth season, they can watch it on CBC this fall…or watch Citytv’s reruns of the fifth season, if they air as “encore presentations” this fall. Try to wrap your head around that one.

I go into the Rogers upfronts not expecting much – maybe a low-rated documentary series for Citytv, foreign reality-show formats with the word “Canada” flour-pasted onto the side, and American programming – the usual.

Citytv’s fall schedule is its usual heady mix of American shows, and “encore presentations” of Rogers “original series.” Saturday, by now, is Citytv’s Canadian cultural ghetto. Less Than Kind will even air 9:30 PM ET on Saturdays this fall, and it better not be four-year-old reruns of the first season.

More encouragingly, Citytv has two original comedies up for 2013, Seed and Package Deal. Seed is about a sperm bank donor, and how he deals with the byproducts of his white gold. Package Deal is “about three overly close brothers and the woman who comes between them,” which reads as generic. So did Shaw Media’s Continuum, when it was announced.

The Citytv press conferences are basic. There are the usual American stars to sell their wares – Katie Couric promoting her new talk show, Brandon Routh and Michael Urie promoting Partners, and Max Greenfield shilling New Girl. Dominic Monaghan beats the drum on Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, an OLN/Channel 5/BBC America nature show, while Tyler Harcott sells viewers on the merits of The Bachelor Canada.

Andrew Orenstein and Joseph Raso promote their respective shows, Package Deal and Seed. Citytv sells Package Deal as the first Canadian multi-camera sitcom in decades, which ignores YTV’s Mr. Young. Perhaps youth sitcoms aren’t as glamorous as adult sitcoms. Package Deal shoots in Vancouver, and has Mr. Young‘s production company, Thunderbird Films, behind it.

An interesting announcement concerns Citytv and Sportsnet sewing up rights to HBO’s 24/7 Maple Leafs/Red Wings: Road to the NHL Winter Classic. This isn’t a Canadian series, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are the first Canadian team with a 24/7 profile. Given that Rogers is set to own 37.5% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, this is Canadian content, in a way. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment owns quite a few sports channels, so Rogers wants to feature a prospective acquisition.

Hopefully, Rogers and Citytv build on their commitments to homegrown programming. It’s nice to see Rogers and Citytv muster a little more effort than usual, even if the overall strategy is “let’s buy a lot of American programming, and here’s our version of a popular reality show format.” I didn’t expect Citytv to announce any new shows, beyond The Bachelor Canada.

One niggling issue: no announcements regarding G4 Canada, or bio? What did they do, break Rogers Media’s priceless Ming vase, or something?

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Dramas and Comedies, Featured

Not an Industry Update – Of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, and Picnicface

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It’s upfront season now, both in the United States and Canada. Attention turns to which Canadian dramas and comedies survive into 2012-13. There are already surprising cancellations, such as SPACE dropping Todd and the Book of Pure Evil after its second season, though TBPE‘s producers wish to keep the show alive. The Comedy Network’s Picnicface is also among the cancelled, and Picnicface troupe members won’t take this cancellation lying down.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil creator/showrunner Craig David Wallace recently admitted that the show’s SPACE ratings weren’t high enough for the channel to approve a third season. Its runs on MuchMusic and The Comedy Network, a run on American horror cable channel FEARnet, plus its DVD releases on both sides of the border, suggest that it still has a healthy audience. When Todd and the Book of Pure Evil‘s first season was rerun on The Comedy Network last summer, TBPE was that network’s top Canadian show.

Picnicface, another Bell Media cull, earned soft ratings in first run…but that might be due to The Comedy Network’s practice of reairing the same episode multiple times a week, as CanCon filler. On YouTube, videos from Picnicface‘s first season regularly earn 20,000 or more views. A couple have more than 100,000 views. Stupidly, those videos are geoblocked for non-Canadians.

The Canada Media Fund alloted Picnic Pictures Inc. $624,000 for Picnicface‘s thirteen-episode first season. (PDF) Even if the CMF money is a fraction of Picnicface‘s budget, it’s still a low-budget show. By comparison, the Canada Media Fund alloted $5,415,000 to Todd and the Book of Pure Evil‘s second season. (PDF) TBPE is the bigger risk, and is harder to defend on a purely financial level.

On the flip side, I can’t think of any current shows in TBPE‘s genre, adult-oriented horror-comedy set in a high school. TBPE arguably takes Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s lead, yet TBPE is more rooted in horror conventions, metal, and being the anti-Degrassi. There’s almost nothing else like it in Canada. Bite’s The Cutting Room is a horror-comedy series, but comparing it to TBPE is like comparing apples and a lawnmower.

I think Bell Media underestimates the interest in Picnicface and Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. Canadian shows do fall through the cracks sometimes. One only needs to look at Combat Hospital‘s cancellation to figure that out – 1.5 million viewers in Canada, yet the show was done in by high costs, and a weak American showing on ABC. Luckily, some Canadian shows find life after death – Shaw Media/Showcase’s Endgame underperformed on that channel last year, and has since found a more receptive home on Hulu – enough that Hulu might commission its second season.

A sub-billion-dollar PBIT, on $3.7 billion in 2011 revenues, suggests that Canadian broadcasters are in decent shape. At the same time, killing shows like Todd and the Book of Pure Evil and Picnicface after one or two seasons does nothing for the Canadian television industry. It might not be obvious now, but these shows could be to the 2010s what Trailer Park Boys and Corner Gas are to the 2000s.

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Featured, Industry News

Industry Update – CRTC Decisions April 16 – May 1, 2012

After the 2012 Toronto Screenwriting Conference on March 30 and April 1, 2012, I took a sabbatical from the Industry Update. In the past few weeks, the industry has roared into overdrive, especially when it comes to CRTC decisions. This update will focus solely on decisions made by CRTC between April 16 and May 1, 2012.

Continue reading Industry Update – CRTC Decisions April 16 – May 1, 2012 →

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Call Me Fitz, Featured

Call Me Fitz renewed, Todd & The Book of Pure Evil and That’s So Weird cancelled

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Random news sourced from (sigh) Twitter:

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Featured, Industry News

Daegan Fryklind (The Listener, Being Erica) to moderate Vancouver TV Writing Seminar with Larry Kaplow

Just announced:

Vancouver writer Daegan Fryklind will moderate TV, eh?’s TV Writing Seminar with Larry Kaplow (House, Body of Proof) on Sunday, May 6.

Daegan has written for The Listener, Being Erica, The Guard, jPod (Leo Award winner in Dramatic Writing for the episode “The Final Shot”), Robson Arms (nominated for a WGC Award for the episode “Misery Inc”), Falcon Beach, and Cold Squad as well as the animated series Yvon of the Yukon, Something Else, and What About Mimi? She was co-writer on the feature Edison and Leo. Daegan is currently in development on two dramatic series, one with CBC/Lark and one with Space/CTV/No Equal.

Participants will learn practical information on breaking in, pitching, story structure, the writing room, dealing with notes, writing for production, as well as developing their own work. The registration fee of $250 includes a networking lunch and coffee breaks.

Larry Kaplow is an Emmy-nominated television writer/producer from Los Angeles, winner of the 2005 Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Television Script, Episodic Drama, for the House episode “Autopsy.” He attended the University of Rochester for English and New York University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing, Fiction, and began his television career as an assistant on Clueless and Chicago Hope before writing for Family Law, Hack, K-Ville and Body of Proof, in addition to six seasons with House. Kaplow has lectured at USC, NYU, Duke University, Johns Hopkins, and the National Association of Broadcasters, among others.

For more information and to register for the seminar, visit the event registration page.

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